


life could be a dream

by sbiderwoman



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Annoyed Peter Parker, Annoying Harley Keener, Female Harley Keener, Female Peter Parker, Hurt Peter Parker, Not Canon Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Penny Parker - Freeform, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's adoptive child, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-02-29 23:10:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18788161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbiderwoman/pseuds/sbiderwoman
Summary: Ever since Penny Parker was small, she had always admired the soulmate system.___Or, soulmates AU where Endgame, Civil war or IW never happen and they all live happily ever after the end.





	1. if i could take you up in paradise up above

Ever since Penny Parker was small, she had always admired the soulmate system.

She loved hearing stories about people finding their own true love, their other half. She couldn't wait until she got her own soulmate mark, or their name on her wrist, or their empathy link, or whatever was supposed to indicate her significant other.

First it was her parents. Up until the age of six, every single night without a fault, her parents would tuck her in gently, kiss her forehead and tell her the tale of how they met.

Her parents weren't able to see colours. Until they met, that is. She loved listening to them talk about how her father had walked into the diner, looking at the cute waitress before ordering the blue milkshake. She loved listening to the part where his dad's brain shut down because  _wait, blue milkshake?_ She loved hearing about how they went on countless dates after that, their first kiss under the cliched sunset at the beach, their college days together.

She heard it every night, yet she never got tired of hearing it.

Until they got cruelly snatched away from her in that plane crash. She never heard the story again.

Although she was still happy, because she had her aunt May and uncle Ben to look after her.

They wouldn't ever replace her parents, but they still held a special place in their hearts. She started asking about their story. 

She loved hearing their story, too. They were able to see each other's auras. They always started about how a grieving aunt May had been out for the first time since her best friend's death. How she had walked into that concert, as beautiful as ever. How she had danced and sung at the top of her lungs with her friends, letting go of her grief and sadness and guilt for one night. How uncle Ben had caught sight of her powerful bright red aura, and faceplanted on the dirty concrete floor trying to get to her. How that ungraceful faceplant had attracted her aunt's attention, and how she had turned her head to see a  _handsome young lad_ (as she liked to say) surrounded by a blinding blue aura. She loved hearing about the dates that followed, the kisses, the cuddles, the movie nights, everything.

She listened to it every night. It never, ever got tiring.

Later, two months and five days after her fourteenth birthday, she had gotten bitten by that spider. The spider that would unknowingly change her life, turn it upside down.

When she had learned about her powers, she had been ecstatic. Because, come on, it would be every teenager's dream to be able to stick to walls, hear things that happened in another country, using her inhumane strength to move trucks with her bare hands. The first few weeks, she had gone crazy.

But then, tragedy struck, like it always did.

She had yelled at her uncle, who frankly didn't deserve it. She had stormed out of the house in a blind rage, red obscuring her vision. It had been her fault her uncle had come after her, her fault he got shot. Even with her powers, she couldn't save him. She let the mugger get away, she saw him die in her arms, blood seeping through his clothes. She begged him not to go even though she knew it was too late. She saw the paramedics take him away through her now tear-stained vision. 

Later, she had taken off, blind hatred overpowering her common sense, to find the man who did this to her. He hadn't gotten far. She punched and kicked and punched and kicked and  _punch kick punch kick punch kick_ before she had realised what she was doing was wrong. She came back to her senses and gave the bloody, barely alive figure on the ground one last disdainful look before webbing him up and swinging away.

When she had gotten home, the police officer was already there. He had just told May about the incident. Together, they sobbed and clung to each other to find what little comfort they had left. 

During the days following the incident, she had stopped talking completely. Her best friends, Ned, Harry and MJ were starting to worry increasingly more. Flash had gotten worse. He would shove her against the lockers, and punch her, kick her, calling her a worthless orphan, a waste of space.

Penny never tried to stop it because she knew she deserved it all. She started believing Flash.

Until one day, when her world stopped turning. The day she had come home to see her aunt, her beautiful, strong willed aunt, _hanging by a fucking rope._

She didn't know what to do. She broke down sobbing, crying, screaming, trying to get away from it all because this was all her fault. She had called the police, informing them about the cold lifeless body,  _her aunt's cold, lifeless body_ , that was currently hanging from a rope in the living room.

She ran away. She went to live in an abandoned warehouse somewhere close by. She had stopped attending her school. She started hurting herself, emotionally and physically. She had gotten a part time job at a local supermarket, where she worked 6 hours a day, and then spent the rest of her day being Spider-Woman. She was dirty, her hair was greasy, er eyes were bloodshot, her wrists were bloody.

That's how Tony Stark found her, on her fifteenth birthday. He had been looking for Spider- _Woman_ , not Spider-Girl. When he had first seen her, he couldn't believe his eyes. He was expecting lots of things, but a starving, hurting fifteen year-old was not one of them.

She had taken one step towards him before collapsing of exhaustion, hunger and pain.

One and a half weeks later, she had woken up in Stark Tower's med bay.

___

One year later, she was finally happy.

Tony and Pepper Stark had adopted her. She had gone back to Midtown, where she was now loved by everyone (save Flash) because of her bubbly, easy-going personality. She was a part of the Avenger's crazy family, going on missions and taking part in every movie night, training with Nat, baking with Bucky and pranking the team with Clint.

She had rediscovered her love for soulmates when her mom and dad had told her about their love story.

Tony Stark and Pepper Potts had soulmate tattoos, the most common soulmate indicator out there. She giggled every time about how they were working together for almost two years before realising they were each other's soulmates, which also happened by accident.

There was still a huge crevice in her heart where her parents, aunt and uncle used to be. Slowly but surely, that too was healing.

Penny was only missing one thing, and that was her soulmate

She didn't know how she would recognise them. She could see colours, she had no tattoo, she never felt any emotions that weren't hers.

So you could imagine her surprise when she woke up one morning with some kind of drawing on her hand.

It was as if someone was drawing something on it. She jumped up from her bed and ran to alert her parents and the team. They were all happy for her, congratulating her.

She had done her research. Apparently, what she had was pretty uncommon. Once their soulmate turned seventeen, they were able to draw something on their skin which would appear on their soulmate's skin.

Penny, who was currently two weeks away from her seventeenth birthday, was euphoric. She had a soulmate!!!

She only wished her soulmate would stop drawing  _dicks on their body_ , though.


	2. if you could tell me i'm the only one that you love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ever since Harley Keener was small, she had always admired the soulmate system.
> 
> She was never one to enjoy cheesy rom coms, kisses on the beach under a magnificent sunset or males being 'chivalrous'. She liked keeping things simple, yet effective.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i decided on making harley female because why the fuck not :)  
> it was decided right as i was about to write it because i lack impulse control so here we are  
> ENJOY

Ever since Harley Keener was small, she had always admired the soulmate system.

She was never one to enjoy cheesy rom coms, kisses on the beach under a magnificent sunset or males being 'chivalrous' (read: males thinking females were incapable of doing things on their own, because they were apparently 'damsels in distress', or 'inferior', as they tended to say). She liked keeping things simple, yet effective.

Nevertheless, she enjoyed hearing the story of her parent's first meeting every now and again.

Meaning, every single day.

She couldn't have been happier. At five years old, she had finally gotten a sister, after months of begging, sobbing and puppy dog eyes. The next three years were undoubtedly some of the happiest ones of her life. She was so blinded by happiness she couldn't see the signs, the clues.

Until one day, they ran her over, leaving her completely fucked up.

That was none other than the day her dad left her.

At eight years old, she had not fully understood what was happening. She came home from school one day, hopping her way onto the front porch, faltering when she saw the door swing open and stopping dead in her tracks when she saw her father leave, suitcase in hand. Reluctantly, she had entered her home to see her mother, collapsed in the kitchen, sobbing and holding her little sister.

That day, Harley lost faith in the soulmates system. Because if there was a possibility your soulmate would still break your heart, even after the heavens themselves created them to be your perfect match, what was the point?

Her parents were happy at first. They really were. She was there, she saw it. How her dad would wake her mom up with gentle kisses, how he would often bring her breakfast in bed, how they would spend every holiday as a happy family, living in the moment, not knowing what the future was reserving for them. It just shows that even fate can make mistakes.

Harley became cold. Distant. She kept on smiling and laughing, although people where unaware when her eyes lost their usual twinkle, or when her smile wouldn't reach her eyes. She changed, slowly but surely. She built an impenetrable fortress around her, that not even the strongest human could break.

And then Tony Stark broke into her garage.

It was another simple day for the 12 year old girl. Tinkering with her potato gun, trying to improve it. She loved mechanics, always had. Her father and her always used to buy old, used cars and try to make them work again. Ever since her father left, it became some sort of stress relief, an escape from the outside world. Which is why she was  _a little_ pissed when she heard a loud bang coming from the garage. Thinking it was just some thugs coming to steal her equipment. So, she waited until they left.

They never did. She hid patiently, until she heard a strangled cry of help coming from outside.  **(A/N. Ya'll are going to have to forgive me, it's been a while since i've seen Iron Man 3 and my youtube is glitching so I can't exactly re-watch the scenes. Love that :)! )** Carefully, she stepped over the discarded metal, rusting machine parts and dirty cloths, and what she found was definitely not what she had expected.

She didn't know  _what_ exactly she was expecting, but a bloodied, bruised and battered Tony Stark was  _not it, chief._ Immediately, she had rushed to his help. Nursed him back to life, helped him get back home. After he had left, she kept in contact with him. They called each other almost every week, he kept sending materials over to her home. Overall, she had grown quite close tp the man.

Which is why, at fifteen years old, Harley Keener was not very happy when she first heard about Penny Parker. 

She tried not to show it, of course, when he first told her about her. How he had found her, starving, dying of hypothermia in an abandoned warehouse, how he had taken her in, given her a home with all the avengers, Pepper and himself. He started calling her less now that he hung out with  _Penny_ , and besides, even when they did talk, all he basically talked about was how ' _Penny is a genius, Harls',_ or how _'You two girls would get along beautifully, you're so alike!'_.

All in all, Harley loathed Penny Parker with a deep, fiery passion.

Ok, fine. Maybe Tony didn't talk about Penny that much. But it was clear as day that she held a special place in his heart, a deeper place than Harley's. 

She became bitter. Harley was always gorgeous, with long, silky dirty blond hair, full pouty lips, clear skin and sky blue eyes. She just never showed it off.

She started sleeping around, like Tony had, with boys and girls alike. It didn't give her much pleasure, but it gave her some sick sort of satisfaction, knowing that she was wanted, somewhere in the world. Even if it was a little bit, for a little while.

A small, selfish part of her wished that Tony would notice the change in her smile, her appearance and comment on it. But he never did.

He still loved her, in a weird best friend slash daughter-father kind of way. She knew that and he made sure she knew. She was loved by her sister, Abby. By her Mother. 

But she just needed more. She craved human affection.

Two years later, on her seventeenth birthday, she had almost managed to forget everything about the soulmate system. That is, until she reached for a bottle of ink, and spilled it on her hand, making id disappear.

At first, she freaked out. She thought she had been poisoned. Until she told her mom.

Laughing gently, her mom told Harley that it meant she had finally found her soulmate indicator.

She had done her research. Apparently, what she had was pretty uncommon. Once a soulmate turned seventeen, they were able to draw something on their skin which would appear on the other soulmate's skin.

She didn't know wether to feel relieved or angry. Relieved, because up until now, she had though she was a freak of nature, the only one without a soulmate. Angry, because the soulmate system had already failed her once. Who was to say history wouldn't repeat itself?

Since she didn't know what to do, she decided to have some fun.

And what better way was there to do that than by  _drawing the male genitalia all over herself?_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just in case i forgot to tell you gays last chapter, tony did mention harley to penny, but penny wasn't particularly jealous. there. now you know.  
> this is probably shit. it's pretty late and i'm too lazy to proofread it (i'll probably just make more mistakes, anyways)  
> Also the last chapter was so well liked????? i'm kind of shook???????????  
> a n y w a y s, i honestly hope you enjoyed this chapter more than i'm enjoying my life rn  
> toodles!  
> -sbiderwoman


	3. life could be a dream, sweetheart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ''Oh yeah? Who's coming?''
> 
> ''Well, Nat, Steve, Rhodey, basically the whole team-''
> 
> After each word pronounced, her smile got impossibly bigger.
> 
> ''-and Harley.''
> 
> What?
> 
> ''Who's Harley, dad?''
> 
> Tony's eyes widened almost comically as he whispered to himself something that sounded suspiciously like god, fuck, i knew this was a bad idea.
> 
> ''It's ok, Mr. Stark,'' she answered with a sweet smile, mischief hiding behind the fake innocence of her eyes. ''I'm sure we'll get along just fine.''

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bold- harley's writing  
> italics- penny's writing  
> normal- literally the rest of the story

Dicks and Flash apart, Penny's life was alright.

Scratch that, it was better than alright.

It was  _fantastic_.

But of course,  _of course_ her Parker luck had to go ahead and throw in a swirling, sudden hurricane that took the form of Harley Keener.

She had hoped that since she had become a Stark, her Parker luck would have left her alone.

_Oh boy, was she wrong._

___

It all started on her birthday, when she had finally,  _finally_ been able to write back to her soulmate.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The second Penny opened her chocolate eyes, she almost squealed at the thought of being 17.

She was excited because she could finally tell them to fuck off.

_Hey there, soulmate. If you could please stop drawing dicks on your body, that_ _would be greatly appreciated. Thanks._

That was a pretty civil first message, she thought. Maybe, just maybe, they would back off and stop making her a walking porn site.

**so ur finally 17??? my god i thought i was a pedo**

Ok, rude.

_> :0_

'Bravo, Penny. Very mature.' she muttered to herself sarcastically.

**did u srsly write an emoticon on your arm???? are u sure ur 17???**

She has no right to judge me when she puts u and you're in a sentence together, she thought glumly before putting her genius mind to work on finding the right response.

_Could you stop writing like that you're going to give me a seizure._

**LiEk wAhT**

Penny narrowed her eyes at the disturbing message written across her forearm. Whoever they were, they were going down.

_I swear to luigi you write like that one more time and wherever you are, I will find you and crop your kneecaps off._

**i came out to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked rn**

Did she just-

_blocked_

_____

 

''Hey, Bambi. Hope you enjoyed your last moments of being 16 because you're a big girl now, which means that from now on you'll be making breakfast''

Penny Parker-Stark groaned as her dad, Tony Stark, enveloped her in a warm hug and pushed a plate piled with pancakes towards her. Penny never liked making a huge deal out of her birthday, but whenever she said so, her dad would look at her as if she had held up a building (which, she had, once, but that's besides the point).

''I know that you don't like making a big deal out of your birthday, but I arranged for a few people to come over next weekend to celebrate''.

At that, Penny let out a huge beam.

''Oh yeah? Who's coming?''

''Well, Nat, Steve, Rhodey, basically the whole team-''

After each word pronounced, her smile got impossibly bigger.

''-and Harley.''

What?

''Who's Harley, dad?''

Tony's eyes widened almost comically as he whispered to himself something that sounded suspiciously like  _god, fuck, i knew this was a bad idea._

''It's ok,  _Mr. Stark,_ '' she answered with a sweet smile, mischief hiding behind the fake innocence of her eyes. ''I'm sure we'll get along just fine.''

''Stop reminding him, Pen'' called out her mom's voice as she entered the room. '' Poor old man's already cried twice this morning. Something about them growing up so fast''. Pepper Stark drank her coffee calmly as she watched her daughter burst into laughter and her immature husband pout.

''I'm getting a divorce'' he grumbled.

''But then, whoever will manage your company whilst you're away saving the world?'' asked Pepper as she pecked him on the lips and walked out of the room, still holding her steaming hot cup of coffee.

Pepper Stark really was a force to be reckoned with.

___

 

**so what can i get u for ur birthday, stranger**

_You could stop drawing dicks on yourself_

**lmao sorry no can do**

Followed shortly after by a dick drawing.

Penny huffs in exasperation. It was amusing, maybe the first day or two.

But after the second week, she wanted to find her god-forsaken soulmate and just-

-just web them up and leave them there.

_Please? It's my birthday I deserve some kindness._

**fine. but only for today because u sound cute**

_kjasdkjakskasjadksk_

**did u just write a keyboard smash on your thigh??? my pepper ur so extra**

That, she was.

_That, I am :)._

**another emoticon. ill just,,,, leave before i get the sudden urge to play fortnite or rob lox or smn**

_Excuse me I thought we established that my birthday was a safe day, please don't go around disrespecting me in my good Christian household._

**so ur christian**

_No, I'm jewish._

**so r u gonna tell me your name**

_Nah, I think I'll just tell you random things about myself, but not my identity, you_ _know? I just want to see if you'll be able to find me based on what I tell you_

**sounds about rite. but if by this time next year i still don't know anything about you you better spill the tea and it better be hot**

 

_Bye stranger <3_

**bye**

**__**

That night, Penny fell asleep with countless messages on her body, and a huge beam.

She likes her soulmate, she decided.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is kinda short but i just wanted to get one (1) chapter out

**Author's Note:**

> heeeyo gays  
> i read a soulmate au the other day and decided to give it a shot!  
> i know most of it is about penny's tragic backstory but tHAT MATTERS NOT?  
> so???? do you like it???? hate it????? do you not care because you don't even like the mcu?  
> tell me e v e r y t h i n g  
> -sbiderwoman


End file.
